Making flourless chocolate cake gluten-free is pretty easy, since naturally it’s already gluten-free. But veganizing it takes a bit more work. The usual recipe takes chocolate, eggs, sugar and butter and turns it into a dense, moist, very chocolatey cake. And the eggs in the recipe are what gives it its structure, so you can’t just go and replace them with the usual flax seed, mashed bananas, or ‘vegan egg replacer mix’ that most vegans use in place of eggs.

So, how does this work, then?

Pumpkin! And also, umm, a little flour. But it’s buckwheat flour, and as the person who wrote this recipe mentions, buckwheat isn’t really flour, it’s a groat! So it doesn’t count, right?

The recipe is extremely easy to make: just put everything in a blender and blend blend blend! Then pour into a greased Springform pan and bake for about an hour at 350C.

This recipe is from Gluten-Free Goddess, and I didn’t modify it at all, so I’ll simply link to her blog. I will mention that you don’t need a Vitamix for this recipe, any blender will do, as long as it is decently high powered and has about a 2L capacity (or more).

I served mine with a simple caramel sauce: Take 2 tablespoons of soy milk and combine them with 1 tablespoon arrowroot flour and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Set aside. Then take 1/4 cup of vegan butter (like Earth Balance) and melt in a small pot. Stir in 1 cup brown sugar and 1/3 cup soy milk and let come to a boil. Let it boil for 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Then, take the pan off the heat and stir in the arrowroot mixture – it should thicken pretty quickly. Serve over your cake or over ice cream or anything else that could use a little caramel.

This is my final post on the February Vegan Challenge. I have to say, it wasn’t bad at all having zero animal products for the month of February. It was a bit tricky at times, as eating out when you’re vegan can be a challenge, but cooking at home was completely fine. I even finally got to try soy-based ’sour cream’ and I liked it! Like most vegan ‘replacement foods’ (butter, sour cream, etc) it has to be a sometimes food because of the high amounts of palm oil, but it was a tasty addition to some vegan tacos we had a few weeks ago.

If you’ve ever thought of going vegan for a while, I encourage you to do so!

I can’t take credit for this recipe – that goes to Isa Chandra Moskowitz and her book, Vegan with a Vengeance. Which I’ve posted recipes from before, so you know this book gets a lot of use in our house.  I’ve modified the recipe ever-so-slightly to my own tastes. And, let’s be honest here – this isn’t an authentic pad thai. But it is vegan and it is delicious!

Awesome Vegan Pad Thai
Serves 4

1 pound rice noodles

For the sauce:
6 tablespoons tamari (I used wheat free)
6 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons tomato puree (not gonna lie here – I used ketchup, as I was out of tomato puree. Thought I had some, oops!)
2 tablespoons chilli sauce or hot sauce
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons tamarind concentrate or lime juice (I used lime juice as tamarind is really hard to find!)

For the pad thai:
6 tablespoons peanut oil
1 pound tofu, drained, pressed, cut into small triangles (instructions are below)
1 medium red onion, cut in half, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon finely minced lemongrass
1 cup bean sprouts
2 green onions, sliced into 1 inch lengths
2 small dried red chillies, crumbled (optional – if you like extra heat)
1/2 cup chopped roasted peanuts
4 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Lime wedges for serving

Pressing tofu: take your block of tofu and remove it from any packaging it is in. Place it on a plate, wrapped in some clean paper towel or a clean dish cloth you don’t mind getting dirty. On top of that, place a heavy object, like a big hardcover book or heavy cast iron frying pan. Leave to press for 30 minutes, then flip it over and repeat the process. Pressing the tofu gets out a lot of the liquid and makes it a more chewy texture.

Cutting tofu: once pressed, cut the tofu into small triangles. First, cut the tofu along the short side into 1/2 inch pieces. Then, cut the tofu in the middle along its long side (or length).  You now have a bunch of small rectangles. Cut each one in half to create triangles. Set aside while you get the noodles going.

Prepare the rice noodles according to the directions on the packet. Once they are almost cooked, you can start on the rest of the recipe – just make sure to time them so you don’t overcook them.

Mix together the ingredients for the sauce, stirring well to make sure it’s combined. Set aside.

Preheat a large nonstick frying pan or wok over moderate high heat. Pour 2 tablespoons of peanut oil into the pan, giving it a few minutes to heat up. Add in the tofu and stir fry for 4-5 minutes until the tofu is crisp on the outside. Remove from pan and set aside.

Pour 2 tablespoons more of peanut oil into the pan. Add half the red onion and cook for 30 seconds. Add half the garlic and half the lemongrass and cook for another 30 seconds. Add half the sauce and when it starts to bubble add half the noodles. Cook for two minutes stirring constantly, then add half each of the tofu, bean sprouts, spring onions, chillies (if using), and peanuts. Stir for 30 more seconds. Transfer to two serving plates and garnish with coriander and lime wedges.

Repeat with remaining ingredients for the other two servings.

Which brings me to last weekend. See, Rich had a craving for poutine. Prior to discovering my milk allergy, this would have been a really easy thing for us to make at home. But then I had to eliminate cow’s milk. Well, no problem, there’s some pretty decent goat’s milk curd out there! But… vegan poutine? Would that really work?

I searched the internet for recipe ideas and realized that everyone came to the exact same conclusion I did: Take french fries. Take your favourite vegan cheese substitute. Take vegan gravy. Combine and eat. Just like this video suggests.

Ok, so my version was less, umm, fancy. I bought store bought fries and put some Follow your Heart mozzarella on top in the last few minutes of baking, then made my own vegan gravy and combined it all to eat.

Now, there’s no pretty way to photograph poutine, but here’s proof we did it, in all its gravy smothered glory.

It was quite tasty! Admittedly, it was missing the squeakiness of fresh cheese curds, but it tasted good and certainly had that Friday-night-junk-food feel to it. So I’ll call the experiment a success.

The 2010 February Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.

So mezze. I love small plates and I love mezze, even if the trend is getting a bit old at restaurants here in Toronto. But at home, I think it’s a great idea for a party. Unfortunately, we had no event to have a party for, so instead I just made this month’s challenge just because I could.

We were required to make pita bread from scratch, and hummus from the recipe Michele found. Other than that, we could make whatever else we wanted for our mezze table. I opted to go the slightly easy route: a gluten-free pita, hummus, and falafel (also gluten-free). Everything was already vegan, so I didn’t have to worry about that end of things.

The pita was the real challenge for me. The original recipe was of course filled with gluten, so I had to get creative and figure out how to make a good flatbread that would go well with hummus. I searched around for a recipe that caught my eye and found this one, which was apparently adapted from the book The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread by Bette Hagman. After playing with the ingredients a bit to make sure they were vegan and used what I could find the day I wanted to make my pita, I set out pouring my flours, mixing my dough, and, well, hoping! My pita turned out decent but not as good as they could have. It didn’t rise much, which isn’t a huge surprise, but I think next time I might add a bit more yeast to give it more rise. They also didn’t have pockets, which is also no surprise. Fresh out of the oven, it was a bit too chewy and dense, although it did have good flavour. The next day, it was actually better, which does not surprise me much, as I’ve found most gluten-free, vegan baked goods need to cool completely so their texture will ‘develop’. I think next time I might try some flax+water to replace some of the egg whites and maybe add some agar instead of just adding in extra xanthan to replace the gelatin.

Gluten-Free Pita – Adapted from Gluten-free Gastronaut
This recipe makes 9, 6-inch pitas.

Dry ingredients:
1/2 cup quinoa flour
1/4 cup sorghum flour
3/4 cup rice flour
1 1/4 cups tapioca starch
3 tablespoons almond meal
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 1/4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons xanthan gum
1 tablespoon egg replacer

Wet ingredients:
4 teaspoons dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon agave
3 tablespoons earth balance (vegan margarine)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons hot water
egg replacer for 3 egg whites (depends on the brand, check your box)

Take 2 large cookie sheets and grease them well, or cover them with silicone baking mats. Set aside.

Mix your dry ingredients in a mixer with the paddle attachment. If you don’t have a mixer, you can do this by hand – just take a whisk and mix everything together really well.

Dissolve the yeast in warm water with the sugar. While your yeast is getting frothy, put the hot water in a small bowl and drop in the Earth Balance, stirring to make sure it melts.

Pour both the yeast mixture and the Earth Balance mixture into the bowl with your dry ingredients, and then turn your mixer to medium-high. Beat for 3 minutes. If you’re doing this by hand, just take a wooden spoon and mix well until everything seems blended. This will probably take a good 5 minutes – you need to give the xanthan gum time to do its thing.

Grease your hand with a little Earth Balance or plain tasting oil (such as canola or sunflower). Make balls of dough slightly larger than an egg and then pat them down onto your prepared pans. You want to end up with dough rounds that are about 6-inches in diameter and about a 1/4 inch thick. Keep going until all your dough is used up; you should get about 9 pitas. Leave the pans in a warm place to rise for an hour or so, until about 50% higher.

Preheat your oven to 500C. Once fully heated, bake your pitas for 5 minutes or so, watching carefully to make sure they do not burn.

For best taste, let them cool completely before eating, but they’re fine eaten right away if you like.

The hummus recipe was good, but I have to admit I prefer my own recipe. This one is very lemon-y.

Hummus – Recipe adapted from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden
Prep Time: Hummus can be made in about 15 minutes once the beans are cooked. If you’re using dried beans you need to soak them overnight and then cook them the next day which takes about 90 minutes.

1.5 cups dried chickpeas, soaked in cold water overnight (or substitute well drained canned chickpeas and omit the cooking) (10 ounces/301 grams)
2-2.5 lemons, juiced (3 ounces/89ml)
2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
a big pinch of salt
4 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste) OR use peanut butter or any other nut butter—feel free to experiment) (1.5 ounces/45 grams)
additional flavorings (optional) I would use about 1/3 cup or a few ounces to start, and add more to taste

Directions:
1. Drain and boil the soaked chickpeas in fresh water for about 1 ½ hours, or until tender. Drain, but reserve the cooking liquid.
2. Puree the beans in a food processor (or you can use a potato masher) adding the cooking water as needed until you have a smooth paste.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Adjust the seasonings to taste.

And last, the falafel. It was easy to make these gluten-free by simply using chickpea flour instead of all-purpose. They turned out really great, although I do recommend having a large food processor to make it. Mine couldn’t keep up with all the dry ingredients it needed to chop. Also, I think next time I’ll half the amount of onion – this was too strong for me. But they were delicious otherwise, and not too difficult to make – try it some time!

Falafels - Recipe from Joan Nathan and Epicurious.com
Prep Time: Overnight for dry beans and 1 hour to make Falafels

1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked in cold water overnight OR use well canned drained chickpeas (7 ounces/100 grams)
1/2 large onion (roughly chopped, about 1 cup)
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped OR use a couple pinches of dried parsley (.2 ounces/5 grams)
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped OR use a couple pinches of dried cilantro (.2 ounces/5 grams)
1 teaspoon table salt (.1 ounce/5 grams)
1 teaspoon dried hot red peppers (cayenne) (.1 ounce/2 grams)
4 whole garlic cloves, peeled
1 teaspoon cumin (.1 ounce/2 grams)
1 teaspoon baking powder (.13 ounces/4 grams)
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour (1 ounce/24 grams) (you may need a bit extra) *** I used chickpea flour instead to make this gluten-free!
tasteless oil for frying (vegetable, canola, peanut, soybean, etc.), you will need enough so that the oil is three inches deep in whatever pan you are using for frying

Directions:
1. Put the chickpeas in a large bowl and add enough cold water to cover them by at least 2 inches. Let soak overnight, and then drain. Or use canned chickpeas, drained.
2. Place the drained, uncooked chickpeas and the onions in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the parsley, cilantro, salt, hot pepper, garlic, and cumin. Process until blended but not pureed. If you don’t have a food processor, then feel free to mash this up as smooth as possible by hand.
3. Sprinkle in the baking powder and 4 tablespoons of the flour, and pulse. You want to add enough bulgur or flour so that the dough forms a small ball and no longer sticks to your hands. Turn into a bowl and refrigerate, covered, for several hours.
4. Form the chickpea mixture into balls about the size of walnuts.
5. Heat 3 inches of oil to 375 degrees (190C) in a deep pot or wok and fry 1 ball to test. If it falls apart, add a little flour. Then fry about 6 balls at once for a few minutes on each side, or until golden brown.
6. Drain on paper towels.

I’ve been going to Live off and on for about a year now, and fell in love with the food from the first bite. The restaurant started out as an all raw, vegan place back in 2003, but added in some cooked dishes a few years after they opened. Now they’ve got a whole line of products they sell at various stores in the GTA, including these take-out dishes.

The one I picked up was a ‘Spaghetti Bolognese’: zucchini noodles with tomato, cabbage and carrots, topped with a sundried tomato sauce, almond ‘cheese’ and walnut ‘bolognese’. Ok, I know that sentence was a little excessive with the quotation marks, but that’s unfortunately one of the things that happens with raw food sometimes – raw, vegan versions of old favourites that, well, aren’t quite like the old favourite. Admittedly, we always have a bit of a laugh over it, but enjoy the food none-the-less.

This take-out container made an awesome, filling lunch and made me feel like I’d eaten something healthy without it being the least bit boring. It was perfect after a long run at the gym.

Now I just need to get back to the restaurant to take some pictures and share with you more of their dishes!

As anyone who knows me has probably guessed, I’ve been slipping more and more towards a fully vegan diet over the last little while. Melissa’s post got me thinking more about veganism and how easy it would be for me to just go fully vegan. For many, veganism would be a real challenge, but I’m fortunate enough to have a lot of resources at my disposal. I live in a very vegan friendly neighbourhood (with several vegan restaurants and a great vegan grocery/products store) in a large city with tons of resources for vegetarians and vegans. I love to cook and am not the least bit afraid of trying new things, even if my experiments don’t always work out. I don’t have kids, so I don’t have to worry about picky eaters or feeding a family. I have a large number of cookbooks and recipe blogs that I read that offer all kinds of vegan cooking ideas. And of course, none of this is a huge stretch for me; I’m sensitive to gluten, dairy and eggs anyway, so I rarely eat anything that ISN’T vegan! I’m very used to all the work it takes to keep a vegan diet, reading labels and cooking most things from scratch.

So on my way home from work tonight, I thought to myself, “Self, why don’t you try being 100% vegan for a month and see how it goes?”

So the February Vegan Challenge was born. You’re welcome to join me on it, or you can just read along and see how I do. I plan to post as many recipes as I have time for, and happily welcome recipe ideas from you all!

Tonight I made a simple dish I’ve made before, a Vegan Green Thai Curry served with simple rice noodles. It’s almost more a method than it is a recipe, but the amounts I use are posted here. Use it as a guideline!

Vegan Thai Green Curry with Tofu and Vegetables
Inspiration and general cooking method from here, but I’ve tweaked the recipe a fair bit

1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 lb block of extra firm tofu, cut into whatever size cubes you prefer
1/2 to 1 tablespoon green curry paste**
1 or 2 stalks of lemongrass, bruised
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2-3 thin slices of ginger (or galangal, if you can find it)
1-2 cups chopped mixed vegetables (This time I used broccoli, carrots, onion and yellow pepper. Use what you like!)
1 14 oz can of coconut milk (light is perfectly fine, it just has a less rich taste)
2 tablespoons gluten-free soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 lime, quartered
chopped coriander leaves to garnish
chopped chili pepper to garnish

** the green curry paste I buy (Thai Kitchen) is pretty mild. If yours is really spicy, tweak amounts to your taste.

Heat peanut oil in a wok or skillet over medium heat. When nice and hot, drop in your cubed tofu. Cook, turning occasionally to let all the sides brown evenly, about 8 minutes. When browned, remove the tofu from the pan but leave as much of the oil as you can.

Now you make a curry sauce – put your green curry paste, garlic, lemongrass and ginger into the pan and stir vigorously until fragrant. Shake up your can of coconut milk, then open it and add half to the pan. Let that come to a boil, then add in the soy sauce, sugar, and other half of the coconut milk.

Now we add our vegetables and tofu: Let the mixture come back to a boil, then add in whatever vegetables you want. Stir gently to coat, then cook 2-3 minutes, just to get them heating up nicely. At that point, add back in the fried tofu cubes, and stir to coat. Cook another 5 minutes.

Turn off the heat and remove the ginger and lemongrass.

Serve over rice or with rice noodles, with lime wedges so people can add lime juice if they like. Optionally you can also garnish this with chili peppers and/or chopped fresh coriander.

I’ve had some interesting experiments with baking bread, that’s for sure. My first loaf was made with far too much batter, so about half way through the rising process I had to dump it into a much larger container. Then, when it was finished baking, it was too wide, so I ended up with very wide, not very tall slices of bread. It also stuck to the pan like crazy, so you can imagine how useful those actual slices of bread were!

My second loaf was, err, completely made of fail. I bought potato flour instead of potato starch, thinking that I had used potato flour the first time, so it must be the correct product. But the problem lies in the labeling – Club House labels their product as potato flour when it is actually potato starch, and that’s what I bought the first time. Bob’s Red Mill, however, has correct labeling, so long-story-short, I used potato flour in my bread a few days ago. When mixing, the batter was a sticky, thick mess, and I needed to add at least a cup of water to make it usable. It barely rose at all and you can well imagine how dense the resulting loaves of bread were! I ended up taking those to the park for the birds, squirrels and raccoons to munch on.

Today’s bread turned out a lot better. I had my potato starch. I had my other flours. My liquid-to-dry ratio seemed about right, although in retrospect I probably could have used a bit more flour in the recipe, so keep that in mind if you decide to try making this on your own. Maybe add another 3 or 4 tablespoons of starch? You’ll also notice my bread fell in the middle. This is something I’m working on, but it’s a common problem for gluten-free bakers. I’ve linked to two great posts with lots of gluten-free bread baking tips at the end of this post; if you follow those tips, you might prevent your loaf from falling.

And the taste? Quite good! Similar to a basic white bread, good for sandwiches or just with some butter (or in my case, Earth Balance ‘buttery spread’).

Your basic Gluten-free loaf

Inspiration from this recipe by Gluten-free vegan, but I’ve tweaked the recipe a bit.

Dry ingredients:
1 cup potato starch
2/3 cup brown rice flour
2/3 cup chick pea flour (also called besan)
1/3 cup + 2 Tablespoons corn starch
1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet ingredients:
1 1/3 cups warm water (’wrist temperature’ – just warm enough to get the yeast going)
1 Tablespoon blackstrap molasses
2 Tablespoons sunflower oil
1 teaspoon yeast

Additions: Nuts or seeds for the top. Good choices include sunflower seeds and sesame seeds, like I’ve used, but you can use whatever you like.

In a small bowl, mix together the water and molasses. Add the yeast and let stand for 10 minutes. While the yeast is doing its thing, get out a large bowl and whisk together all the dry ingredients.

Once the yeast looks frothy, add the sunflower oil to the wet ingredients and then stir that into the dry ingredients. Your dough should actually be a thick, cake-batter-like consistency. If you need to add a little more flour or starch, add it a tablespoon at a time and mix in completely, until you’ve got the consistency you need. It should look close to this – maybe even a little thicker:

Pour the batter into a lightly-greased bread loaf pan. If you like, sprinkle the top of your loaf with some nuts or seeds. Then cover lightly and place in a warm spot to rise for 1-1.5 hours, until doubled in size.

When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350F. Cover the pan with some aluminum foil, then bake in the centre of the oven for 1 hour. After 1 hour, remove the foil and continue to bake for 10 minutes or so, just until the top has browned.

Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove onto a cooling rack. It’s best to let it cool completely before eating, but I know it’s hard to resist freshly baked bread.

Makes one loaf.

Good tips for gluten-free bread makers from some of my favourite blogs:

Gluten-free Girl and the Chef
Gluten-free Goddess

Rich’s birthday was a week away and I still wasn’t allowed to eat any gluten whatsoever.

Now, this may not seem like a huge deal, except every year that we’ve been together I’ve baked him some sort of birthday treat. Last year it was the caramel cake for the Daring Bakers Challenge. Previous years involved cupcakes or cookies. How can it be a proper birthday without some sort of sweet indulgence? I suppose for this year I COULD have just made him something and not had a chance to sample it myself. Totally possible, not unreasonable. And yet, I didn’t like the sound of that. I’ve been very good on this diet; I’ve eaten very few sweet treats over the last few months. So I should be able to share some treats with my husband on his birthday, right?

Then I remembered Babycakes, the NYC bakery that is well known for its wheat-free (often gluten-free) vegan treats. And that a friend of mine had forwarded me one of Goop’s newsletters, that contained a few of the Babycakes recipes in it. I’d saved the recipes for a special occasion, and well, I think a birthday counts! Given I’m going to always be at some level of gluten or wheat-free, I figured I might as well just invest in buying the book, and went to the bookstore yesterday to grab a copy. I also spent some time skimming reviews of the book online.

The reviews I skimmed told me two things: first, that the recipes weren’t really foolproof, and second, that the frosting recipe isn’t popular – many had trouble getting the consistency correct, and also weren’t fans of the taste. Armed with this knowledge, I set out first thing this morning to whip up a batch of the vanilla cupcakes.

And the result?

I was so pleased to find these are a fantastic replacement for my usual gluten-y vanilla cupcake recipe. I made a few small substitutions to the recipe, in spite of the many warnings that the recipes would only really work if you follow them to the letter. I replaced the garfava flour with half garbanzo, half rice flour, as I couldn’t find garfava flour yesterday, but also because I’m not a fan of the strong bean taste of things made with only bean flour. As well, I didn’t have any lemon zest, so I left it out, instead opting to put in a tablespoon of lemon juice. And finally, I decreased the amount of agave syrup a little bit, replacing some of it with just plain water (to make sure the liquid amounts would still add up).

I noticed as these were baking they looked, well, like cupcakes! I’ve become so used to gluten-free baking over the last few months that I was genuinely surprised by this, as most things I’ve made have had different textures to their gluten-y counterparts. Different doesn’t usually mean bad, per se, just not what I’m used to. But with these cupcakes it was somewhat comforting to know they’d look like they were supposed to.

I found the baking time written in the recipe was a bit off for my oven. When I pulled them out after 22 minutes, they were a bit over-baked. I know, I should have watched them a little more closely, but hey, mea culpa. So if you make these yourself, do keep an eye on them after the 15 minute mark.

Texture and flavour wise, they’re awesome. Lightly vanilla flavoured, good crumb, not weirdly chewy like some gluten-free baking. Two enthusiastic thumbs up!

As for the frosting, well…. I decided to go with an old standby, the chocolate recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I figured that hey, I’m not trying to avoid all refined sugar for this, since it is for a birthday, after all.

The cupcake recipe is available over at Epicurious. Note that as written it makes 24, but it halves easily.

Chocolate Buttercream from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

1/4 cup non-hydrogenated shortening, at room temperature
1/4 cup non-hydrogenated, butter-flavoured margarine (I used Earth Balance)
1/2 cup good quality cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons soy milk (or other vegan milk)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Using a hand mixer, combine the shortening and margarine. When well combined, sift in the cocoa powder and mix well. Then add in the powdered sugar, a little at a time, adding in splashes of the soy milk between additions. One everything is combined, add in the vanilla and beat well for about 3 minutes, until light and fluffy.

Makes enough to generously frost a dozen cupcakes, or lightly frost 2 dozen.

Where’s this place I’m talking about? Oh, right. Hibiscus is an all vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free-friendly restaurant in Kensington Market. Their small menu offers salads, a daily soup, crepes, vegan ice cream and a variety of beverages (coffee, tea, juice, smoothies, etc). Everything I’ve tried on the menu has been fantastic.

The buckwheat crepes are available sweet (toppings such as nutella or lemon and sugar) or savory (cheeses, pesto, various vegetables). All of them can be customized if need be – vegans can order them without cheese, or someone who doesn’t like one vegetable can ask for a different one.

Their salad is a mixture of wonderful things – quinoa, beets, marinaded tofu, carrots, broccoli, seeds… way better than the typical green salad you get at most places.

The soup is always freshly made and always vegan, and comes with a gluten-free cracker made in-house. The last two times I was there, they had a fall soup on – once butternut squash and once pumpkin.

My favourite thing on the menu is their soup and salad combo – for under $10 you get a giant bowl of salad and a wonderful warm cup of soup. It makes for a very filling lunch for one, and is healthy without being the least bit boring.

I have yet to try their vegan ice cream, but on our last visit we learned they use a variety of milk alternatives for it, depending on the flavour. Soy, rice, almond and mung bean are all possibilities – just ask if you’re trying to avoid one of those options. The flavours are really interesting and go beyond the usual strawberry, vanilla and chocolate – black sesame seed, earl grey tea, and mango are just some of the possibilities.

The staff are friendly and attentive, and happy to make ingredient substitutions if you need or want. Last time we were there, Rich went up to the cash to pay and noticed a tray of gluten-free vegan chocolate peanut butter squares. Since I rarely find treats I can actually eat, he opted to get two of them to go. The guy taking the payment said he’d make sure to give us the two biggest squares in the tray. I don’t think this was because we’re there fairly often – I think they really are just that nice to everyone.

This has been one of the real highlights of eating out with my food restrictions, and when eating there haven’t felt one bit like I was missing out.

Hibiscus Cafe – 238 Augusta Avenue – 416.364.6183. Lunch for 2 with beverages, $20.

Truth is, this new diet I’ve been on has been a bit depressing. It wasn’t the gluten-free-ness of it all. It wasn’t the vegan part of the diet. It was the sugar-and-yeast-free stint I had to do, which was the month of September and the first part of October.

See, I’d just gotten used to being vegan (almost) and gluten-free, and was actually enjoying it. But then suddenly I couldn’t even have the few things I’d come to really enjoy about the limited diet. Gluten-free pizza was out due to the yeast in the crust. All the various sauces I used to spice things up were out, due to sugar content or other hidden ingredients I wasn’t allowed. Almost everything I had been eating had sugar, or yeast, or vinegar, or whatever else in it that was off limits. I even wasn’t allowed to have a glass of wine, to drown my sorrows (hah!).

Now, you might be thinking ‘but it was only a month’! Well, it was a depressing month, food-wise. Breakfasts were sugar free oatmeal (gluten-free, of course), or corn puffs (plain), or sugar-free pancakes, or tofu scramble when I actually had time to cook something that intensive. Lunches and dinners were mostly safe foods, like stir fries or noodles with whatever veggies I could find. It became pretty routine. I was bored, and I’m almost NEVER bored with food. I’m always cooking something new and exciting, but that month, well, sucked.

Now I’m back to just gluten-free and vegan, although I am still to limit sugars to a certain extent, which I do. But it’s made life a little easier, and so it has made blogging about food a bit more appetizing. So on that note, here’s a really delicious vegan breakfast I’ve made a few times over the last few months – Tofu scramble, tempeh ‘bacon’ and gluten-free toast with vegan margarine (Earth Balance). Easy, yummy, and worth taking the time to make on a nice Sunday morning.

Scrambled Tofu
From Vegan with a Vengeance

1 lb. extra firm tofu, drained and pressed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium chopped onion
2 cups cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
juice of 1/2 a lime
1 carrot (optional – it’s really just for color)

spice blend:
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon thyme, crushed with your fingers
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1 teaspoon salt

Heat oil in a skillet or frying pan over medium heat. Saute onions for 3 minutes, until softened, then add the mushrooms and saute 5 minutes more. Add the garlic and saute 2 minutes more. Add the spice blend and mix well. Using 1/4 cup of water, deglaze the pan, scraping the bottom to get all the spices and tasty bits.

Crumble the tofu into the pan. You don’t want to crush the tofu, just lift and mix gently – you want to keep it chunky, it’s tastier that way. Let cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding a bit of water if you find it is sticking. Then add the lime juice and nutritional yeast and mix well. Add a bit more water if needed to keep things moist.

Grate in the carrot if using, fold gently, and serve. This is yummy alone, or done as part of a huge vegan breakfast with roasted potatoes and salsa and guacamole and toast and tempeh bacon.

Tempeh Bacon
From Vegan with a Vengeance

3 Tbs. Bragg’s liquid aminos or soy sauce
1/3 cup apple cider
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 8-ounce package tempeh
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 Tablespoon peanut oil or vegetable oil

First, make a marinade: combine the Bragg’s, cider, tomato paste and liquid smoke in a wide, shallow bowl and mix well, until the tomato paste is dissolved. Then, cut the tempeh into thin strips (less than 1/4 inch thick) lengthwise. Rub the strips with the garlic, then toss the garlic and the tempeh into the marinade and let sit for at least an hour. If you’re really well prepared, you can do this step the night before and have the tempeh marinading overnight, but it tastes good with just an hour in there. Once it’s done marinading, discard the garlic.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the tempeh strips and cook for 4 minutes and check to see if the bottom is nicely browned. If so, flip them and pour the rest of the marinade over top. If you only have a bit of marinade, add a splash of water. Cover the pan and let it cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the liquid is fully absorbed. Uncover and check to see if the other side is nice and brown, and keep cooking until it is. Remove from the heat and eat!